Dental tourists head to Los Algodones
Thousands travel across the border every day to get dental work in Los Algodones.
“I would say around 97-99% of our patients are from the United States,” Jose Lopez with Loval Dental told News 11.
Los Algodones is known as Molar City.
“I would say we are the smallest city with the biggest amount of dentists per square feet in the world,” he said.
The town is only five blocks by five blocks and it has over 500 dentists in it.
Kevin Frauenfelder from Gilbert, Arizona has been getting dental work done in Los Algodones since 2009.
“I started having dental problems and I had very good dental insurance in the states but it came to point that I needed to have implants and implants were very expensive in the stats so I asked my sister who lives here in Yuma of recommendations and she recommended me to this clinic,” he said.
The cost difference is what Frauenfelder believes makes this alternative worth it.
“It’s probably 1/3 of the cost of what it is in the states and what I was going to have done, insurance didn’t cover it anyway so it made sense to come here,” he added.
But Frauenfelder says the quality is just as appealing as the prices.
“The clinic here is the highest standard as you’re going to find any place in the the United States and I went to dentists in the United States and so I’m aware of what they have to offer,” he said.
One Surgeon saw the demand and came to Los Algodones to start his own family-owned clinic.
“30 years ago I came to Algodones because a lot of people from Canada and USA came to Algodones for dental service and I like to see international people because it’s a good experience for me and I started at that time only me with one assistant and now we are a big clinic,” Dr. Rafael Lopez said.
Even with this trend, many dental places are working towards making their clients feel more at home as they come across the border for dental work.
“We have to get over the fear of coming to Mexico because there is still a lot of judgment towards maybe the security here and our doctors not being well qualified but our doctors have been getting training here in Mexico, The United States and in another countries and we really invested in education and technology to be on top of everything,” he said.
The Arizona Dental Association has released a statement saying that this dental care is not regulated like it is in Arizona. It is an alternative but it maybe not the best alternative.
